Some local runners and Alamedans are set to collect coats for women and children staying at the Midway Shelter.

The collection will take place this Saturday night, January 23, at the Speisekammer, 2424 Lincoln Ave., when members of the East Bay Front Runners & Walkers will meet at the German pub and restaurant for a membership meeting.

Michael Collier, an Alameda native, says the group’s board is meeting there and also will be collecting coats, jackets, scarves, hats, sweaters, gloves, mittens and other winter items for women and their family members staying at Alameda’s Midway Shelter.

The EBFRW has been working with One Warm Coat to donate to the organization.

If you can’t drop off items on Saturday, the group will try and leave a box for donations to be dropped off over the weekend.

EBFRW is a group of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgenders and friends who get together to run and walk in scenic locations on the east side of San Francisco Bay every Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. On the first Saturday of the month, the group meets at Veterans Court on the Bay Farm side of the Bay Farm Island Bridge.

As for Saturday’s event, close to 50 people have RSVP’d; so the gathering should be a lot of fun, and the coat drive should be quite successful.

Also of note, EBFRW also donates athletic shoes to give to homeless shelters and hospitals.

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To follow up on yesterday’s news: The Alameda County Coroner’s Office released the name of the young adult who was found in the estuary off Grand Street early Wednesday and died several hours later at Alameda Hospital - Ryan Kevin Devine, 24.

Service to and from Harboy Bay was not interrupted. But it’s good to check the latest news for both ferries during the winter.

Early morning on January 20, reports Michelle Ellson of The Island, members of the Coast Guard responded to cries for help from a 25-year-old man in the water near Grand Marina. He later died at Alameda Hospital, possibly due to hypothermia.

A day earlier, the Alameda Journal’s Peter Hegarty reported the recent arrest of a woman who’d stolen property from Alameda resident and opera star Frederica van Stade. The alleged thief had sold some items through Michaan’s Auctions, on the former Alameda Naval Station, which has been cooperating with police in reuniting von Stade’s family with the stolen items.

For those looking to pick up some interesting items at below-auction prices, namely driftwood, here’s your chance. During the afternoon of January 19 (when it was high tide and a few kiteboarders were out), Crown Beach was littered with with driftwood, including one large light-colored curved piece shaped like a beached sea lion.

Just watch your step. At least one fish that measuring about 40 inches had washed up on the beach, too.

To check the wind and other conditions on Crown Beach at any time, go the website of the Kite Wind Surf shop on the beach. The wind camera is taking a winter break; but the wind readings (speed, direction and gust) as well as the weather updates are live.

The city is hosting a neighborhood meeting to discuss the maintenance pruning of 126 Liquidamber trees on Gibbons Drive – from Central Avenue to High Street — at 7 p.m., Thursday, January 28, at Edison School, 2700 Buena Vista Ave., in the Multi-Purpose Room.

The pruning takes place every five years for the long-term health of the trees; it also helps reduce the chance that limbs will break during heavy winds and storms. Before the work begins, a Certified Registered Consulting Arborist must inspect each tree to determine what pruning should be done.

The work, set to start in early February, will be performed by A-Plus Tree Service, a licensed tree trimming contractor. The city says staff from the Public Works Department will monitor these activities. Depending on the weather, the pruning should take two to four weeks.

For more information, contact Todd Williams of Public Works at 747-7900.

Saint Joseph Notre Dame High School senior Sarah Su has been honored as Alameda’s first high school poet laureate. She was recognized and read some of her poems on January 16 at the Alameda Museum.

According to her high school, Su was not outspoken as a child, “finding it difficult sometimes to show the world who she really was. She began to write poetry and slowly, over time, she gained confidence and self assurance.”

“Face it,” she wrote in a poem with the same name in 2008: “A mirror is a piece of glass. Nothing that can tell the past. Nothing that can make people see what it is like to be you or me.”

“Her themes are reflective,” says Elizabeth Norris, a teacher and faculty advisor for Prisms, the literary and art magazine at SJND. “Her work celebrates who she is.”

Mary Rudge, the poet laureate for Alameda, introduced Sarah at the museum event, which was held to honor local writing legend Jack London on his birthday and featured poetry, dance and art. “Your school and your poet laureate will be making history in Alameda as the 2010 High School Poet Laureate and will be first high school student to hold this title in the city,” Rudge says.

Alameda Island Poets hold different events during the year. They also host special workshops at the Main Library on the second Wednesday of the month, from 6 p.m. to about 8 p.m.